


Arcade

by Heliocat



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Arcades, Banter, Cute, Embarrassment, Flirting, Fluff, Friendship/Love, M/M, Male Friendship, New York City, Nostalgia, Shounen-ai, Video & Computer Games, winning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:14:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23688253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heliocat/pseuds/Heliocat
Summary: Ash and Eiji go to an arcade, play some games, and generally act like regular teenage boys for once. Some light flirting, lots of good-natured teasing. Modern setting to make it work (anime). Stuffed full of cute, fluffy drabble - counts as one of your five-a-day.
Relationships: Ash Lynx & Okumura Eiji, Ash Lynx/Okumura Eiji
Comments: 6
Kudos: 93





	Arcade

**Author's Note:**

> Based just after Ash escapes the mental hospital - had to use the modern setting of the anime to make it work. Had the idea of Eiji being stupidly good at rhythm games. Ran with it, and this appeared. Please note, anything written <"like this"> is Eiji talking in Japanese, to avoid me using embarrassing weeb-language in a fic. I'm English, so I use British spelling. And it's rated T for a little bit of blue language.
> 
> Many thanks to Akimi Yoshida for creating Banana Fish - this is a work of fanfiction, so I own none of the intellectual property.

“Fuck I’m bored.”

It was one of those strange periods of quiet in Ash’s life, a calm before a storm. He had successfully escaped the mental health facility and had risen from the dead. For the first time in several years he was not a wanted man by the police, either as a witness, a victim, or for actually committing a crime, as they all thought him in an early grave. Effectively, his record had been wiped clean, although Ash suspected Charlie and Inspector Jenkins - the ‘good cops’, as he called them - had probably heard of his survival from Max. It didn’t bother him if Charlie and the Inspector knew; they were some of only a few adults Ash actually trusted, due to the fact they actually saw Ash as a victim and not a punk, and had helped him out of some dire straits several times when he was younger. He still didn’t trust them enough to actually tell them anything though or, more accurately, he didn’t want to put them in danger with the knowledge he held. They were still the cops and most of the others – especially the higher ranked officers - were crooked and lining their pockets with the bribes of organised crime. 

Unfortunately, the same indifference could not be said of Papa Dino, who knew he was back on the streets and wasn’t deceased. He could guarantee that fat bastard would be very keen to get him back under his influence ASAP, but his power had weakened after being demoted and it would take him time to recoup his losses. Ash had no doubt he’d begin his pursuit of him again soon – Dino was not one to make idle threats. He likely had something big up his sleeve. Still, it was too early to take final action against Dino and the Union Course - Ash had done almost all he could on that front for now, and it was up to Max to finish digging up the dirt using his Newsweek privilege and seemingly endless connections. He would be liaising with him shortly, to discuss matters further. Ash would decide his next moves following their talks.

Then there was Yau-Si, or Yut Lung, or whatever he was calling himself now… he couldn’t tell whether the Lee clan were enemies or not yet, but so far they hadn’t come after him directly since Los Angeles. They had, however, threatened and intimidated people close to him, but it seemed to be some form of personal vendetta rather than anything calculated. He was suspicious and rightfully wary. The Chinatown gang probably still held a grudge against him for killing Shorter too but, thanks to a certain soft-hearted Japanese klutz, their leader, Sing, knew the truth. While the young boss had been understandably angry at Ash for forbidding him speaking about it and leaving him in an awkward position, Ash was confident of the kid’s loyalty. Sing had attempted to fight him before and Ash, in a pretty dangerous mood at the time, had bested him easily with barely any effort at all. Since then, while he had threatened the need for an honour fight if he had to hide the truth indefinitely to keep his boys satisfied, he hadn’t issued a time and date for it. Ash had the sneaking suspicion he was avoiding the issue. He was a good kid with a decent head on his shoulders, and he knew how to pick his fights. He would attempt to stop his boys going after Ash’s people, so he was reasonably safe from a gang fight for now. Sing had also mediated with Cain in his fight with Arthur, and had shown signs of attempting to pick up where Shorter left off in terms of alliances with his own people, but it was complicated by Ash’s refusal to reveal the true nature of Shorter’s end to anyone else. He didn’t want the Chinatowners mixed up any further in his mess; they were a young and vulnerable group, posted too close to the Lee Clan and the Corsicans for his liking. Shorter had died unnecessarily because of his involvement. Even his own boys didn’t know the whole truth for their own safety – they only knew that he had some dangerous dirt on the Union Course, but what it was he hadn’t told them.

Ongoing issues aside, right at this very moment of time he was relatively safe by his standards, with nothing pressing to do. It was a strange feeling, not having to think at a thousand miles an hour or consider tons of options. As someone who tended to overthink everything, he wasn’t sure if he liked the quiet in his mind. It allowed too many less pleasant, intrusive thoughts in. He needed a distraction. His boys were currently all out running their ‘obligations of duty’ or, if they were old enough and able to source it, doing proper legal work. Some worked as labourers on building sites or in highways maintenance gangs, others with access to a car or motorbike did delivery work, most of them hired through agencies on a day-to-day basis, cash in hand. Ash encouraged it; it offered them a way out as they got too old for the teenage gangs and needed a more respectable adult career. He didn’t want any of them living in a world of crime if it could be avoided; most of them were poorly educated from less-than-ideal families, and he had seen too many gang members fall through the cracks when they became older otherwise. He would try and get them a decent rep so they could at least find work and not end their lives either in jail or homeless. With the exception of Bones and Kong, who were still running covert security detail on his apartment block, everyone else was away earning money and running errands. He was alone.

Well, almost.

“What expect me to do about boredom, Ash?” Eiji shrugged, looking up from behind the comic he was reading sat on his bed. “You do not let me out building alone. I am king of boredom!”

“I dunno… What do you do for fun in Japan?”

“I am doing it now,” Eiji replied, returning to reading.

“Wow. Japan must be riveting,” Ash said sarcastically.

“Says boy who spend all day in library reading scientific journal,” Eiji snarked, turning a page.

“I don’t do that for fun, Eiji,” Ash sighed.

“Could fool me,” Eiji shrugged. “You go there many time, especially when upset. It like… place you escape to, when you want time alone, I think. Like… ah! Hayben! It hayben for you.”

“Haven?”

“Yes, haven. That what I mean.” Eiji struggled with the V-sound, so it just sounded like he repeated ‘hayben’ again. Ash smiled.

“I guess it is,” he said, contemplating. “I never really thought of the place as that.” It was quite a comforting thought and Eiji had a valid point. He did feel relaxed there, was able to enjoy a moment of peace and intellectual stimulation away from his otherwise shitty, complicated, and dangerous life. Apart from his boys, who he could trust wholeheartedly, and Blanca, who understood him far more than he felt comfortable with, nobody else would even think of checking the library. That was their big mistake – assuming he was a regular street kid.

“Library good place for nerd find happiness,” Eiji smirked.

“I am not a nerd!” Ash objected, looking scandalised. “I am a smart, sophisticated piece of damn hot stuff!”

“You wear glasses for reading. You nerd!” Eiji sniggered, doing his best to push buttons and managing it splendidly.

“I can see plenty well enough to shoot someone over 100 feet away between the eyes without glasses, unlike -someone- I know who couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn…” muttered Ash, implying Eiji had no aim. Eiji, however, flinched slightly at that statement.

“How did you…?”

“What?”

“Never mind. It nothing.”

Interesting… judging from that reaction, Eiji had an eyesight complex. He was reading just fine, no squinting or holding the book closer to his face or anything obvious. He was a slow reader compared to Ash, but then most things he read were in English, so naturally it would be hard for him. He used computers without a problem, so his close-to vision was probably alright. Was he near-sighted? That might explain his issue aiming straight, if he couldn’t clearly see the target. Wouldn’t that have affected his performance as a pole vaulter too? He had competed professionally, so maybe not. Maybe he was just very good at guessing distance and height when jumping? How much does a pole vaulter rely on their eyesight anyway? Was it more of an instinctual thing, rather than being totally accurate? Would you estimate and hope for the best right up until you’re at the bar, then make final leap adjustments there to clear it? They did do a lot of twisting and contorting of their bodies in the air, so maybe. He’d never really considered it, seeing as he’d never had to launch himself into the air at the end of a flimsy tube of fibreglass to clear a loosely-placed target line. It did, however, explain his disconcerting habit of silently staring at you, his large eyes mesmerising, like a cat asking for attention. It wasn’t that he was staring at all; he was trying to focus on something just a little too far away for him to see clearly.

“Maybe you should get your eyes checked out when you go back to Japan,” Ash suggested lightly.

“My eye fine, Ash,” Eiji said, rankled. He fidgeted a bit as his insecurity was brought into question. “Photographer eye! I see things clear enough.”

“You’d look wicked cute with glasses,” Ash shrugged. “Just sayin’.”

“You think so?”

“I know so.”

“I think you lie.”

“Well, think what you want, but when you start getting headaches don’t come crying to me,” Ash said. Eiji chose to ignore him. He didn't admit it to Ash, but he did wear contact lenses sometimes. However, since going on the run he had been unable to renew his prescription of daily lenses and was making do without. Besides, they irritated his eyes anyway.

Ash flopped down on his own bed next to him with a groan, bouncing slightly as he landed on the mattress. He stared at the ceiling for a moment, eyes tracking the swirled Artex patterns that danced around the light fixture.

“What kind of hobbies do Japanese people have?” he asked, genuinely curious. “Other than sports. I know you people like baseball and stuff. Obviously, you did athletics. Not much of a sports fan myself, no offense.”

“None taken. I quit pole vaulting after injury anyway. It very stressful when done as professional… not really hobby any more. Found it harder and harder to compete, fell further behind rivals. It not just injury - I reached limit of ability. It depressing when you cannot win no matter what do. I felt like failure.”

“Sorry about that.”

“No need be sorry! It my problem, not yours, and it in past. What you say before? Japanese people apologise too much? You just as bad. I am Ibe-san’s apprentice now. I am happy as photographer! Anyway, to answer question, Japanese people mostly like quiet things.” Eiji counted some serene hobbies off on the fingers of one hand. “Tea ceremony. Kimono. Flower arranging. Bonsai trees. Gardening….”

“Lots of botany there…”

“Botany…?”

“Plants.”

“Oh. I guess so,” Eiji said. He closed his comic and put it on the bedside table, wanting to give Ash his full attention in conversation. “Japanese people like flower very much. We watch cherry blossom each spring – it big thing!”

“Again, sounds riveting,” Ash said sarcastically.

“Trees bloom pink for few days only. Everyone go to park, eat snacks, get drunk all day,” Eiji said matter-of-factly.

“Actually, I take back what I said… that sounds like fun!”

“You underage!” Eiji scolded him.

“No public drinking allowed in New York anyway,” Ash said dismissively. “Not that it stops people from doing it.”

“Japan allows public drinking most places,” Eiji explained. “Drinking pretty big part of culture, although I am too young. Most salarymen drink. But Japanese tend to be happy or sleepy drunks. Americans always get rowdy, wreck stuff…”

“You should see the Irish!” Ash smirked. His Dad was of Irish descent, and was a pretty mean drunk. Ash had seen him start a full-blown brawl in his own bar once. Jennifer had somehow managed to haul him off a man he had pinned down and was violently introducing to the floorboards. Ash was pretty impressed she had managed it – Jim Callenreese was built like a brick shit-house, but she was stronger and braver than she looked. He regretted what had happened to her… she was an incredibly kind person. She hadn’t deserved that.

“Japanese people also like karaoke. Everyone go to karaoke club, order private room with friends, sing, eat and drink. It good time, sometimes.”

“Americans like karaoke at parties,” Ash said. “But I’m not a huge fan of my singing voice. It’s really husky. Not that there’s anything wrong with drag queens, but I sound like one when I sing.”

“Pfft! You are queen!” Eiji laughed.

“You want me to punch you?” Ash threatened, sitting up and glaring while Eiji giggled. “I am not above smacking you in the face!”

“That not lady-like!” Eiji laughed harder. Ash grabbed a pillow and started beating him up with it. He rolled around on the bed, still howling with laughter, yelling at him in Japanese. Ash knew enough Japanese to catch the gist of what he was shrieking. <”Ow! OK – I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Hahaha! Stop! Ah!”>

“You’re sorry?”

“Yes! Very sorry!”

Ash stopped. A moment of silence passed…

“You would make very pretty queen…” Eiji said. Ash threw the pillow at him outright, hitting him smack in the face with it. <”Ouch!”>

“Go eat a bag of dicks,” he hissed, flustered. He was flattered, really, at Eiji calling him pretty, but he also had some fairly recent bad memories of getting chatted up as ‘Nurse Barbara’.

“I am sorry! I stop now,” Eiji wheezed, pushing the pillow off himself and sitting back upright. <”I’m sorry!”>

“I’m sure, in time, I’ll learn to forgive you,” Ash said, but he was smiling as he said it.

“Oh! I know what Japanese people like that you might like too,” Eiji said, eyes lighting up. “Arcade! Japanese people love arcade!”

“What, like, games arcades?”

“Yes! Many adult like pachinko parlour, but everyone like video game,” Eiji said animatedly. “Japan birthplace of video game!”

“Actually, I think Canada was the birthplace,” Ash pondered. “They made some Tic-Tac-Toe game in the fifties. Lots of countries were developing games before the East got their hands on them. I mean, I know Atari sounds Japanese, but it’s as American as I am. Japan just took the technology and improved it.”

“We improve everything,” Eiji agreed, looking smug. “We even improve toilet, we that good.”

“It’s been ages since I last went to an arcade,” Ash admitted. Some of his boys went quite often, but he just never had the time, or else chose to spend that time at the library instead. When he was younger and less rebellious, Papa Dino had always frowned on him doing anything so lowbrow and banned him from going. Following his training under Blanca, he had discovered the healing power of a good book and would pick reading over video games. Thinking about it, he hadn’t been to an arcade properly since Griff left for the army. Griffin had really enjoyed the retro games, like Pacman and Asteroids, and he had several fond memories of them both hanging out together at the arcade by the sea front on lazy afternoons back at the Cape. Griff had always helped him out shooting the last alien ship on Space Invaders. It got faster and harder to hit, but his older brother had a patient and steady hand and rarely missed. “There’s an arcade not too far from here,” he said.

“I have seen it,” Eiji admitted. “Bones go there sometimes.”

“Wanna go?” Ash suggested.

“Now?”

“No, next week… Of course now! I’m bored!”

“If you sure…?”

“I am one hundred percent sure,” Ash said, rolling off the bed and walking to the wardrobe. He rifled around inside, pulled out his old varsity jacket, and chucked it at Eiji. “Get dressed. We’re going.”

*

The arcade in question was just one block away. At this time of day, when most normal kids were in school, it was relatively deserted. The interior was dark, lit only by a few UV darklights and the screens of the video games lined up in rows inside.

“Oh cool, it like a Taito Station!” Eiji said as they walked in.

“I have no idea what one of those is but I’ll take your word for it,” Ash said. He was dressed once again in a slightly more casual version of his upper-class schoolboy persona, borrowing one of Eiji’s plain shirts and a beige cable-knit cardigan. He had his ‘nerd glasses’ on, as Eiji had so kindly called them. He didn’t care. He was pretty infamous as a gang boss, so the more nerdy he appeared, the less suspicious people became of him. When he really wanted to cover up his identity, he would make his slight New England accent a lot thicker, act older, and pretend he was a Harvard student. It wasn’t as necessary for Eiji to hide his identity – there were enough Asian citizens in New York, including tourists who didn’t know America all that well, that he should be able to blend in without too much difficulty. A few people knew his face, but compared to how many people knew Ash it was a drop in the ocean and barely an issue. Ash still winced every time he did something out in the open that was painfully, obviously Japanese though, things that could give away who he was should he run into anyone unsavoury, such as bow slightly and apologise whenever a scurrying New Yorker barged into him, but it couldn’t be helped. Those habits were so ingrained into him, it would take forever to get him to break them.

They wandered around the various games, trying to choose one to play.

“What do you fancy?” Ash asked him. It had been so long since he’d played a video game, he figured he’d let the more experienced gamer take the lead.

“How about that?” Eiji pointed at what looked to be a first-person shooter over in the back corner. It was two-player, tacky plastic weapons holstered in front of twin screens, a pedal on the floor serving as a crouch/hide prompt.

“Seriously? You hang around with me all the time, and you wanna play a shooting game?” Ash said.

“Could be fun,” Eiji shrugged. “Shoot thing with no danger. I approve.” Ash sighed.

“Come on then…”

It was the third game in the Time Crisis series. Ash, not surprisingly, found it easy to play. The guns were far bigger than the pistols he was used to toting, but he was no stranger to a shotgun or an assault rifle either, and you didn’t have to be that accurate a shot to hit the targets. He progressed through the game with alarming ease and familiarity, taking down the electronic marks with cold indifference. It wasn’t what he’d call a fun game, shooting people for kicks, but he was ridiculously good at it. Eiji, however, struggled. His aim was wild, he kept forgetting to reload and, before even completing the first stage, he died completely when someone shot him in the ‘face’. He groaned at his loss, and watched Ash finish the remaining three stages alone.

“Isn’t this supposed to be co-op?” Ash quipped, risking a glance at Eiji who looked a little glum at being killed off so early.

“You too good,” he commented, a slight whining jealousy to his tone.

“Lots of practice,” Ash said darkly, hammering the last few shots home into the final boss. A congratulatory screen flashed up saying he had achieved a new high score. Eiji was surprised to see he wasn’t the highest overall – Ash’s score was fourth highest. Someone called ‘SHO’ was in fifth, and the top three were filled out by ‘ASS’, likely from people thinking it was funny to type ‘ass’ on the screen and have it recorded there forevermore. “Probably best not to use my street name,” he said, using his given initials instead as he typed ‘AJC’.

“It funny to see ‘ASS’ ranked higher than you,” Eiji smirked.

“Shut up,” Ash growled.

“You pick next,” Eiji said, still sniggering childishly at ‘ASS’.

“That one?” He pointed at a driving game. Two slightly reclined, brightly coloured plastic racing seats with wheels and pedals waited poised in front of a canopied screen for someone to play. “You’ve stolen cars before, so I know you can drive.”

“One time I steal car and now nobody ever let me forget!” Eiji protested. Really though, the time he had driven off with Charlie’s car wasn’t the only time he had commandeered a vehicle and, on that occasion at least, it had been returned through Nadia Wong. They’d parked it near her place when they went to find Shorter, knowing the police would probably go looking for it in that area and find it easily, and had gotten the keys to Nadia via one of Shorter's gang members. They told her who it belonged to and left the keys with her, asking if she could report the lost keys to the police as a third party. If the inspector hadn't turned up, she would have just handed them over as lost property at any police station, but unfortunately the Chang Dai had been the first place the cops had visited to try and find Shorter, so she had to play things a little cool. Nobody knew she was secretly dating Charlie, but happenstance worked in their favour and Charlie magically got his keys back within 24 hours. Eiji had been pretty upset about the whole thing, and had written him a really long and wordy apology letter which he’d left in the glove box before they abandoned the car; his written English skills were decidedly better than his spoken ones. Later, he had also joined Ash’s gang in grand theft auto from Golzine’s mansion, and he’d taken one of the Lee family vehicles when he escaped from their place with Yut Lung as a hostage. Granted, that time he had sort-of returned the vehicle immediately afterwards, as he left it in the general vicinity of where he let Yut Lung go with the keys still inside, and the time with the gang he had just happened to be there and wasn’t the direct thief, but it did seem to be becoming a habit in the otherwise staunchly law-abiding Eiji.

“It was pretty bad-ass though, you gotta admit!” Ash said. “Even I haven’t stolen a cop’s car from right under his nose! I mean, I tried... but you managed it before I could!”

“I panicked!” he said. “You had gun and needed way out, and was my fault your Brother got… I felt like had to do something! I feel bad for Charlie, taking his car, getting him in trouble. I am terrible person!”

“No you’re not, and you know it,” Ash scolded him. “So does Charlie, or he’d have arrested you ages ago for overstaying your visa.”

“I break so many law since meet you…” Eiji moaned, simultaneously embarrassed and ashamed. “Bad influence!”

“Well, Dominic Toretto, sit your ass down and show me how bad an influence I’ve been,” Ash said, pushing him towards the game.

“Who Dominic Toretto?” Eiji asked.

“Ain’t you never seen ‘The Fast and the Furious’?”

“No.”

“Never mind then,” Ash shrugged, taking a seat and preparing to race. “No cheating, Speed Racer!” he threatened.

<“After that comment, I make no promises,”> Eiji muttered, sitting in the seat next to him. <”I’ll show you Speed Racer… Besides, it’s ‘Mach GoGoGo’, you philistine!”>

“Oooh! Lil’ Japanese baby mad!” Ash taunted, noticing Eiji had done his usual cute-angry thing of switching to his native tongue to grumble to himself. He hadn’t a clue what he’d just said, but he sounded annoyed. Eiji stuck his tongue out at him like a five-year-old and fed a quarter into the slot.

The game was one of the Rush series, and soon the two of them were speeding around a street circuit of San Francisco in pimped out sports cars. For a while, they were pretty even, jockeying for first place in a race with several other NPCs. Then Eiji crashed taking a sharp corner too fast

<”Shit!”> he swore, as he spun the avatar car and dropped several places in the rankings. He couldn’t make up the difference, and Ash again won by a landslide.

“HA!” he crowed, victorious. “IN YOUR FACE!”

“You win,” Eiji conceded. “Well done,” he added, so as not to be a sore loser.

“You really suck at these things!” Ash laughed. “Are you sure you’re Japanese? I thought you were supposed to be good at video games?”

<”Such a thing as a poor winner, you know,”> Eiji muttered.

“C’mon, cheer up! Look, they have claw machines! Maybe I can win you a present,” Ash said.

“I not baby,” Eiji said. “But… that would be nice.”

There were four claw cranes containing various items. One had ten-dollar bills wrapped around empty cans, one had boxes with statuettes inside that would be nigh on impossible to grab with the cranes due to their weight and smooth printed sides, and two held cuddly toys. Ash considered the toys; one was full of popular cartoon character dolls that looked just the wrong side of legitimate merchandise, and the other various realistic stuffed wildlife. There were elephants, wolves, and crocodiles forced in tight to make them hard to lever out with the weak crane mechanism. There was a hopeful looking one in amongst the overcrowded beasts though; it was loose, unlike the others, head down but rear end pointing up. It looked a little bit like a mountain lion with its butt in the air, although it had a shorter tail, like a bobcat.

“That one,” Ash said, pointing at the furry cat-bum. He grinned cheekily. “Face down, ass up, that’s the way we like to-“

“Crane always rigged,” Eiji told him, interrupting his innuendo. “You never get it.”

“Don’t know if you don’t try,” he said. He put in enough money for five attempts. “Just a bit of fun anyway.”

<”Good luck!”>

His first attempt was off target, the prongs of the claw bouncing off the legs to land and flop on its side, closing to grasp at air next to the toy instead.

“Damn,” he growled as the crane slowly trailed back empty, commiseration music playing. He tried again, this time his aim true, but what Eiji said was right; the crane was rigged. It would only grasp a toy firmly about once every twenty plays. It loosely gripped the cat’s backside, caressing the fur with its three metal fingers and lightly tugging at it temptingly, before sliding off on the return journey up. “That music is starting to piss me off,” he said as the losing jingle played again.

“Did say it rigged,” Eiji said matter-of-factly.

Ash’s third attempt was about as successful as his second one, the claw returning full of only empty hopes and dreams.

His fourth attempt, however, surprised both boys. The claw dropped down with a deadly accuracy, the prongs falling nicely between the cat’s legs to get a firm grasp over the butt and around its belly. They closed with a healthy grip and pulled upwards, carrying the toy with it. They held their breaths as the music played a tense electronic beat, the crane painstakingly rolling its way back to the prize chute, every judder and lurch threatening to make the toy drop from its tenuous hold…

The claw opened, and the toy fell into the retrieval box. The machine played an upbeat serenade of whistles and bleeps.

“Holy shit!” Ash exclaimed, surprised.

<”You did it!”> Eiji said, excitedly. “You got it!”

“And one attempt left,” Ash said. He wasted the attempt trying to get a panda, firmly wedged up against the glass. Meanwhile, Eiji pulled the toy from out of the machine and examined it with a grin. On closer inspection, the ‘mountain lion’ was revealed to be a different type of cat entirely. It had subtle dark spots airbrushed into its sandy fur and, instead of the rounded ears and panther-like face of a puma, it had large tufted triangle ears and longer, fluffy bits around its cheeks.

“Of course it would be…” Ash rolled his eyes.

“You catch lynx!” Eiji laughed, showing off the toy gleefully, his dark eyes shining. It was a fairly nice toy - good quality as far as crane machine prizes go - although it did look a little bit wall-eyed. “I call it Aslan.”

“Don’t you dare!” Ash warned him, feeling heat rise in his face.

“Why not? It cute!” Eiji said, beaming up at him in that disarming way he had.

“Fine. Whatever,” he conceded, flushing a deeper shade of pink. He turned around to hide his face. “It’s just a name. I don’t care.”

“Aww, you embarrassed!” Eiji teased him. “I definitely name it Aslan now!”

“S…shut up!” he stuttered, then dramatically changed the subject matter away from himself. “Come on. Let’s play something else!”

They spent about half-hour playing some more classic arcade games. Ash played one of his old favourites, Space Invaders, but without Griffin to help him he failed to shoot down the last raider. He wasn’t sure if it was a nostalgia thing rather than a skill thing; Griff had always gotten the last one for him, so it felt wrong doing it for himself. He let the aliens win with a sad smile on his face. Eiji got pretty close to clearing a round of Pac-Man, but a ghost got him with three dots left to eat. They beat each other up in Street Fighter for a while, in which they were fairly evenly matched, and a slightly confusing button mashing frenzy ensued when Eiji found a newer Blazblue game nestled in amongst the retro American fare. They also played a round of air hockey on a battered old table, Ash competitively brutal with his returns, the puck frequently taking flight and either hitting Eiji in the knuckles or being flung off the table entirely. Scared for the state of his battered hands, Eiji nervously let him win.

Ash found himself drawn to an unusual looking machine in a dark corner of the arcade. The console was white, but decorated with bright neon stickers, a round touch screen giving it the appearance of a front-loading washing machine. Anime characters danced about on the screen, cutesy-looking girls in maid dresses beckoning you to play.

“Oh! I play this in Japan!” Eiji said, trotting over to it. “Maimai! Surprised see it here!”

“Is it a rhythm game?” Ash asked. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen it before.”

“You hit button and swipe screen in time to music,” Eiji said. “Can be tricky – music fast! I am not so good at it.”

“Show me how it’s done,” Ash told him, holding out a coin. “You said you played in Japan? I want to see how good you are.”

“Fine,” he shrugged. “Hold my lynx.”

He handed Ash the soft toy and took the offered coin, pushing it into the machine. He scrolled through some tunes, pondered over a couple of them, eventually picking an anime track he recognised from the list. Ash watched him attentively as he prepared himself, shaking his arms to loosen and limber up, assuming a stance like he was about to attack the machine instead of play with it…

The music began.

To anyone looking casually, Eiji was just flailing wildly and uncoordinatedly, like a crackhead off his nut. He pummelled the machine with continuous fast taps and clawed at the screen with a strange desperation, crossing arms over to bash brightly coloured shapes flying over the screen at a ludicrous speed. However, if you looked closely, you could see the concentration and focus on his face, his eyes fixated on the screen, pupils darting back and forth rapidly, following the notes. Even more impressive, if you checked his score…

“Fuck me…” Ash gasped. He had expected Eiji to be as bad at this as the other games. He’d wanted another excuse to tease him, but this was something else. He had a full combo going, almost every note hit in perfect time. The song ended with a crescendo, and Eiji looked mildly disheartened when he saw his score.

“I am getting rusty,” he said. “I missed four beats near end.”

“I thought you said you weren’t very good at this?” Ash said incredulously, handing him back the lynx.

“I am not. My sister… she much better than me.”

“Jesus… they do say that for every game you are good at there’s an Asian somewhere who is better… guess for you, it’s your sister!”

“You want go?”

“Nah, I’d just embarrass myself,” he said. “I could barely follow along with what was going on there.”

“Haha! See – told you! My eye fine!” Eiji crowed delightedly. Ash didn’t want to contradict him. Instead, he checked his wristwatch, noticing the time. Kids would be getting out of school soon, and his boys would be returning from wherever they had been for the day. They would want their orders for the following days.

“We should probably think about going,” he commented.

“Yes. Arcade fun, but I am out of quarters,” Eiji nodded.

Reluctantly, they left the arcade behind and made their way back to the apartment, chatting idly about what they were going to eat that evening and when Ash was going to meet Max again. Eiji was keen to see Ibe, so they were hoping to go together over to Long Island in a couple of days to where Max said he was hiding out. Ash spied Kong standing sentry by the main entrance to their apartment block. He stood chatting to the official doorman; somehow, both Bones and Kong had struck up an unlikely friendship with the doorman, but he seemed a pretty cool guy. He was young, maybe only a year or two older than Eiji, and cheery. He was a little naive though, assuming that ‘Chris’, the rich banker’s son, just had a lot of friends who came over. He never twigged that the boys who came and went were gangsters. Eiji trotted over to say hello to them; most people in the block thought Eiji was his houseboy, and because Eiji was as friendly as a puppy and mostly confined to the building, he had gotten to know some of his neighbours and the staff pretty well in the short time they’d been there. Ash was about to join them too, but something suddenly set his nerves on edge, hairs rising on his neck as he went on alert.

He looked around, nervous and antsy, but could neither see nor hear anything suspicious. It was just a feeling he had, a sixth sense tingling, telling him someone was watching him. It wasn’t hostile… but neither was it comfortable. Maybe he was just getting paranoid.

“You OK?” Eiji asked him, noticing his distress. He forced a calm smile and nodded.

“Yeah, just peachy,” he said. “Thought I saw someone I knew, but it was nobody. Let’s go in.” He nodded at Kong, who followed them into the building.

“Bye Steve,” Eiji waved to the doorman as Ash ushered him inside, still feeling a little shaken. He calmed down a bit once they got back to the apartment, but only once he’d checked all the rooms thoroughly and peered suspiciously over at the Union Course offices opposite through squinted green eyes before closing the blinds. Kong had stationed himself outside the apartment door for extra security, Bones joining him soon afterwards following a brief phone call. Meanwhile, Eiji had placed the stuffed lynx in a prime spot on the back of the sofa, a place where everyone coming in would see it.

“Really?” Ash said, exasperated, when he saw where Eiji had put it. “The boys are going to rag on me something crazy, that being there!”

“Only other place put it is bedroom,” Eiji said. He narrowed his eyes and with a wry grin asked, “You want me sleep with lynx, Ash?”

 _‘Yes,’_ Ash thought, his subconscious ruminations entering a dangerous territory. “No,” he said out loud, picking the lynx up off the couch. “But it can’t stay there – I have an image to maintain!”

“Okay. I put it on shelf in bedroom, out of way,” he said. “Thank you for present. It really is cute.”

“Yeah, well, you’re welcome,” Ash muttered. “Now you can’t say I don’t get you anything nice.”

“Nicest thing you give me is pleasure of company. That all I need,” said Eiji quietly, causing Ash to flush a furious shade of magenta. Sometimes, Eiji could be surprisingly brazen and open about his feelings. Flustered, he passed the lynx back to Eiji.

“J…just, put that away somewhere and stop getting all mushy,” he stuttered, embarrassed again. That damn Japanese boy and his innocent charm would be the death of him.

**Author's Note:**

> It is canon that Eiji is near-sighted, but doesn't want to wear glasses because he feels they don't suit him. It is a tiny little fact stated by Shunichi in 'Fly Boy In The Sky', which I thought would be fun to throw in there :)
> 
> 'Hold my lynx' is the new 'hold my beer'.


End file.
